Do you rate/review books you didn't finish?

ALynnPowers · Post by **ALynnPowers** » 22 May 2015, 07:54

It's because I pose such thoughtful questions like this one that I caused your brain to overheat and melt down, like an overexerted computer or something.

PashaRu · Post by **PashaRu** » 22 May 2015, 08:14

Yeah, except it's more like I have a gerbil on a wheel in my head. And the wheel squeaks. And the gerbil is old and partially blind. Nothing resembling gigabytes or "Intel inside" or RAM or even a cooling fan in my skull. Yep. I'm just a one-old-partially-blind-gerbil-in-the-head kinda guy.

ALynnPowers · Post by **ALynnPowers** » 22 May 2015, 08:30

PashaRu wrote:Yeah, except it's more like I have a gerbil on a wheel in my head. And the wheel squeaks. And the gerbil is old and partially blind. Nothing resembling gigabytes or "Intel inside" or RAM or even a cooling fan in my skull. Yep. I'm just a one-old-partially-blind-gerbil-in-the-head kinda guy.

So basically, you're internet explorer? Or AOL?

PashaRu · Post by **PashaRu** » 22 May 2015, 08:34

Somebody took too many mean pills today.

LivreAmour217 · Post by **LivreAmour217** » 22 May 2015, 08:56

I wouldn't review a book I didn't finish, unless the book was just so horrible and offensive that I felt compelled to warn others. Then it would be "DNF, because..."

I would never give a book a low rating simply because I couldn't get into it--that wouldn't be fair to the author or my fellow readers.

bluemel4 · Post by **bluemel4** » 22 May 2015, 10:07

LivreAmour217 wrote:I wouldn't review a book I didn't finish, unless the book was just so horrible and offensive that I felt compelled to warn others. Then it would be "DNF, because..."

I would never give a book a low rating simply because I couldn't get into it--that wouldn't be fair to the author or my fellow readers.

I see my Goodreads account as more of a place for me to record how I felt about a certain book and why I did not finish it. It's a journal of sorts. I place it in my DNF book shelf and record the reason. Usually it is more than "It did not hold my attention." Sometimes I know it is my own mood that caused me to dislike the book so I put it in my try again book shelf. I was under the impression on Goodreads that you have to rate a book once you announce that you are finished. I always give these books a 1 star rating because if I could not get through it (which happens extremely rarely I think I have 3 DNF books) how could I rate it anything else?

Laurencbosch · Post by **Laurencbosch** » 22 May 2015, 17:20

It doesn't feel right to me reviewing a book I haven't finished. Especially since to me the ending is the most important part as it ties the whole story together. I base most of my feelings on a book on the way the ending relates every prior event. If I feel a book is not worth finishing, then I will just stop reading it, but I won't write a review on it because my opinion isn't valid strictly because I didn't read the whole thing.

-- 22 May 2015, 17:20 --

It doesn't feel right to me reviewing a book I haven't finished. Especially since to me the ending is the most important part as it ties the whole story together. I base most of my feelings on a book on the way the ending relates every prior event. If I feel a book is not worth finishing, then I will just stop reading it, but I won't write a review on it because my opinion isn't valid strictly because I didn't read the whole thing.

zeldas_lullaby · Post by **zeldas_lullaby** » 22 May 2015, 17:32

I have a thought to add to this topic. I read the first several chapters of a book once, and I'm trying to remember what the book was. I got it at the bookstore, general fiction.

The part that I read was filled with grotesque images: dead, rotting animals, etc. I could tell pretty early on that it was sensational beyond what would be included as literary value (such as when a murder mystery has a dead body). The author was just trying to shock and disgust.

Regardless of whether you're into that sort of thing (and I'm not judging), the point is that I knew what the author was all about, I hated it, and of course, I bailed on it. I didn't leave a review, but (if I were to) I'd give it a very low rating that I'd stand behind.

bluemel4 · Post by **bluemel4** » 22 May 2015, 18:16

The more that I think about this topic the more I am upset with myself for giving a rating to books I DNF. I am going to go back and delete my rating and keep it on my DNF shelf. Thank you @ALynnPowers for bringing this topic to my attention.

ALynnPowers · Post by **ALynnPowers** » 23 May 2015, 06:58

bluemel4 wrote:The more that I think about this topic the more I am upset with myself for giving a rating to books I DNF. I am going to go back and delete my rating and keep it on my DNF shelf. Thank you @ALynnPowers for bringing this topic to my attention.

Wow, I converted you to my way of thinking? On one hand I feel kind of guilty. But on the other hand, I am kind of proud of myself.

moderntimes · Post by **moderntimes** » 23 May 2015, 07:26

The reason that I occasionally write reviews of books that I don't finish is that the book is simply too poorly written or too formulaic to merit my reading to the end. I'm no newcomer to book reviews -- I've written reviews for novels (mostly for mysteries, my own genre) for many years, including for major newspaper dailies.

After some years of reading mysteries, both for my own pleasure and for review purposes, it's not difficult to know the overall scope of the book after reading it halfway through. It's analogous to eating a bowl of soup or maybe a steak, and not having to finish the dish before you know it's awful.

As for a surprise ending? Well, that's maybe what we find in kiddielit (YA) fiction, and especially YA fantasy, which seems to be all many here read. Kids' stories often have tricked-out, fakey surprise endings but adult fiction rarely does this, and if it does, it's to the detriment of the book. No reader wants to come across a deus ex machina ending. But it's not necessary to read the book through to know that the writer is already cheating the reader, by invoking forced plot issues and forced characterizations, things that don't ring true to the inherent theme of the book.

By forced plots and deus ex machina, it would be like a popular TV show, let's take Law & Order for example, when the detectives suddenly find out that the killer is a "real" vampire or werewolf. Introducing a supernatural element in a "realistic" show is cheating, and soon the story line becomes so entrapped in plot twists and newly introduced junk that it becomes overly heavy and unnatural in content, like what happened to the TV series "Lost" -- too many trick endings to episodes.

I don't review fantasy or SF or kiddie-lit books anyway. I only review mysteries, as this is the genre in which I write my own novels, and the genre of the site I write my reviews for too. And in the adult mystery genre, it's pretty easy to spot a book that's too formulaic or forced. Either the novel is so plodding and so dry in content, or maybe the writer invokes too many forced events -- by "forced" I mean plot turns that are not realistic or don't fall in the rhythm of the book's premise.

Anyone who's read and reviewed literally hundreds of mystery novels as I have can spot a stinker fast. Exactly the same as if you're watching a new movie and about a third into the movie, you begin going "Gimme a break!"

ALynnPowers · Post by **ALynnPowers** » 23 May 2015, 07:31

PashaRu wrote:Somebody took too many mean pills today.

@PashaRu Sorry about that. I must have overdosed or something.

Post by **bookowlie** » 23 May 2015, 08:47

Personally I would never rate or review a book I didn't finish. It doesn't seem ethical. It doesn't seem fair to the author to review a book that wasn't finished. I read a book recently where the book was nothing special and had some serious flaws. However, the last several chapters of the book were fantastic, tied all the loose ends together in an interesting way, and changed my overall opinion.

As for the DNF category on Goodreads, I've never heard of it before seeing it mentioned on this thread. I use Goodreads primarily to track the books I've read for a Reading Challenge group. I just started rating the books I've read there, but I am way behind on that.

-- 23 May 2015, 09:48 --

LivreAmour217 wrote:I wouldn't review a book I didn't finish, unless the book was just so horrible and offensive that I felt compelled to warn others. Then it would be "DNF, because..."

I would never give a book a low rating simply because I couldn't get into it--that wouldn't be fair to the author or my fellow readers.

I totally agree.

bluemel4 · Post by **bluemel4** » 23 May 2015, 09:52

ALynnPowers wrote:
bluemel4 wrote:The more that I think about this topic the more I am upset with myself for giving a rating to books I DNF. I am going to go back and delete my rating and keep it on my DNF shelf. Thank you @ALynnPowers for bringing this topic to my attention.
Wow, I converted you to my way of thinking? On one hand I feel kind of guilty. But on the other hand, I am kind of proud of myself.

PashaRu · Post by **PashaRu** » 23 May 2015, 09:55

ALynnPowers wrote:
PashaRu wrote:Somebody took too many mean pills today.
@PashaRu Sorry about that. I must have overdosed or something.

@"ALynnPowers" No worries. It was probably me just being over sensitive. You know, PMSing.

You know I get all sensitive and weepy and bloated. It's not fair that you never get to experience this. Anyway, let's let bygones be bygones and eat brownies together, 'kay?